UNBEKNOWN to many people in the Wee County, there is a room in Glasgow's east end which houses an award-winning piece of art based on Alloa train station.

Tucked away in a secure building in Bridgeton lies a huge fully-functioning model railway which took a group of eight experts five years to meticulously craft from scratch.

Measuring in at 34x12 feet, the group's showpiece displays Alloa's station – and surrounding areas – exactly as it was 60 years ago.

The model even has people sunbathing in gardens while buses of the era cross bridges with every single detail carried out with extreme precision to be as accurate as possible.

While some may perceive the model to be a mere train set, it is much more than that, as it is fully functioning from the signals to the trains which are carrying real coal which has been broken down to fit.

A group of eight experts from the Scottish Region Study Group carried out the phenomenal work over five years, choosing Alloa because of the interesting nuances it holds – such as having a junction and a street level station.

Davy Scott, one of the members, told the Advertiser they find it far more appealing to build models of real places, rather than imaginary ones, despite the higher degree of difficulty.

He said: "All of us are from the central belt with a few from Glasgow, but we wanted to build a model of a real place because a lot of people do a fake place.

"Doing a real one is harder because you have to make sure you make it accurate. We chose Alloa because it is a very interesting station.

"There are the double bridges, the junction and the station is at street level. It was also very accessible, so it was an interesting one.

"My great-grandmother and her family are actually from Alloa, but I only learned that recently. It is just something different to show people."

Although the work took five years, with its first outing at an exhibition in 2008, the work will never be "complete", according to Davy.

"It took more or less five years," he continued. "Most models are never finished, however.

"You just work on them until they reach exhibition standard, but you are always learning about the place, especially when none of us remember the station as it was in the 60s so you can only use photographs."

Going to exhibitions and shows allows Davy and his group to meet people who do remember the station, however.

Building real places also becomes a source of nostalgia for an older generation as well, as Davy recalled one older gentleman who became "misty-eyed" as he looked at the model.

The Alloa replica, which is built on a 1:76 scale, is the first the group has built as a team and has won an award at almost every show it has appeared at.

Yet, for Davy, putting the work on display is about more than collecting accolades.

He continued: "It is probably the best one we have made. We all make them individually but this is probably the best."

Despite its success at so many shows up and down the breadth of the UK, one place it is unlikely to visit is the Wee County, due to the manpower and cost required to move it and man it at all times.

Davy went on: "The size of it makes it hard because it takes four hours to break down, then putting it into vans, then another four hours on the other end rebuilding it.

"It isn't something we could take through somewhere and leave either, it requires four people to be operating it at all times and another four to take shifts to give the others a break.

"We only really go to one show a year, two maximum. We can't just pop through to a place with it.

"Alloa would be the obvious place to come because people would come out and see it and remember it. I'm sure it would be a big hit but it would very difficult."

For now, though, the group are currently working on a fine-scale model of Larbert train station, as well as a huge model of Princes Street, a project they think may be the one to top Alloa.